Shenanigans
Team Titan Think Tank Issue 21 "Shenanigans." Waterstone orders the team to go and have some R&R, and that they can go and continue their training the next day, though it will be without the Rumble Room, as all the Rumble Rooms will need to be decommisioned for safety purposes. She mentions that she will be getting in touch with Prometheus Base at the Space Academy for Sentient Superbeings to see if he can let the GSPD have access to their own Virtual Immersion training facilities. The Battling Briton has already gone home to shower after the pizza tower incident, so Sonne takes Reb into Highport, which, being a settlement of Team Titan and Titan City refugees, is a rather ramshackle collection of prefabricated buildings, with the occasional more permament structures. On their way down the hill from Prometheus Base into town they see Mister Psychic approach a lone red phonebox on the hillside which he steps into. He dials the old fashioned phone, and then disappears underground. Shortly after, the ground opens up, and Mister Psychic is sitting in a pink cadillac. He beeps at them and smiles as he drives past, and activates the Pink Mobile's cloaking device. For a few seconds, they see Mister Psychic seemingly sat in mid-air, before he brings roof down and he disappears as well. As Reb and Sonne walk into town, talking about their very different pasts, powers and families, they come across Mister Psychic as a very angry policeman is shouting at him and writing him a ticket, after Mister Psychic went into a shop to buy some tea, and forgot that he had parked the Pink-Mobile with the cloak still on. Later on, the Pink-Mobile comes driving back up the hill, as Psychic forgets about his cloak yet again, and it appears to just be a floating parking ticket. Back on the base, Tonic hurriedly writes a note for Director Waterstone, and attempts to stealthily approach her door and push it under it, but Waterstone hears a noise outside her door before Tonic pushes it under. As Waterstone calls out, Tonic runs away down the corridor. As Waterstone opens the door, she steps on the piece of paper, failing to notice it, as it gets stuck to her shoe. A little confused, Waterstone shuts the door again. Tonic then returns to her room, and begins work on making a domino mask. Yu is still concerned about Games Master's welfare, so goes to locate him, and finds him in Cain's room. Cain is sat by the door getting seemingly enfuriated as he plays a game revolving around making evil lairs (a homage to the game Evil Genius) on the PC, whilst Games Master is sat with Mister Tops, attempting to teach Mister Tops how to play an online first person shooter. Mister Tops is getting enfuriated by the 'primitive' language being used by the other players, and asks Games Master to help him insult them, whilst he constantly gets killed. With Games Master seemingly quite distracted, Yu inquires with Cain as to how Games Master has been, but Cain seems unconcerned about his behaviour so far. Sonne and Reb come to the Garcia household, home of Obsidian, the first Citizen Titan, and his wife, Sakura Noir. Sonne's mother, Deus Ex Machina is there as she spends her days bodyguarding Sakura, since it is Sakura's powers that are holding Titan City and its nanite infection safely in a dimensional pocket, and so she is about the most important person in the entire GSPD. As Reb and Sonne approach the house, they see Sonne's mother in civilian guise as Alyssa Gunn through the window, trying to extract Mark Garcia, the Garcia's four year old son, from the ceiling, which he is crawling along. Laura lets them in, saying that Steve (The Battling Briton) is upstairs using the shower, as Sakura has invited both the Gunns and the Waterstones over for dinner. Reb finds his brother Luke, or Lukey as he calls him, there, playing 'Team Titan' with Mark. Luke gives Reb a drawing which he says is of Reb as a superhero, which includes a ridiculously proportioned body, and a cape. Reb is very proud of the picture and keeps it. Sonne learns from Alyssa more about his father and also the Garcia family and Team Titan in general as he looks over the various pictures and newspaper cuttings on the walls. Steve comes down after his shower as dinner is served. Whilst eating dinner, Sonne learns more about Sakura, and after learning of both her expertise in magic and her agreeing that is can be defined by science as Sonne believes, he talks about Yu's concerns regarding Games Master, and she agrees to come to Prometheus Base the following day, to talk to Games Master and to see what she can find out for Sonne. Sonne learns more about these very unusual families and his own origins as they talk over dinner; Alyssa rather unconcernedly reveals that Reb is technically older than Sonne as due to the nanites that his father put into his body to save his life at birth, he ages at three times the normal human rate, which Sonne thought was normal, due to his lack of contact with other humans. He also believes himself to have no powers, which Alyssa corrects him on, pointing out that his ability to fix and break machines with a mere tap is the result of the combination of her probability altering powers and Samuel T Gunn's technopathic abilites. Sonne explains to Sakura about how the other students at the SASS where he trained and grew up gave him a hard time due to the Gunn name being rather sullied by the antics of his great grandfather, Anthony Gunn (as revealed in Salvage Squad), and Alyssa explains after the events revolving around the manipulation and collapse of Gunn Industries whilst she and Tommy were in space that the Gunn name isn't popular on Earth either. Steve points out that was all the fault of the original Battling Briton's son from another universe, and that Sonne shouldn't feel so bad, considering Steve's own past a reject clone who was mind controlled for years and still finds it hard to get anyone to treat him like they did his 'father.' After agreeing that their families are rather messed up, Director Waterstone comes in through the door, having finished her work for the evening. Shen then finds the note stuck to the bottom of her shoe, and looks at the list. The list is Tonic's reasons of 'why she sucks' as Waterstone explains, a list of all the different reasons why Tonic thinks she should be allowed to be taken off the Think Tank. She tells Reb and Sonne that they are all going to need a big talk with her in the morning. End of issue.